‘Mithali Raj Ignored Her Role, Batted for Own Milestones’, Alleges Indian Coach Ramesh Powar in His Statement to BCCI

Ramesh Powar has come down heavily on Mithali Raj after the latter had accused him of humiliating her during the recently concluded ICC Women’s World T20. The under-fire coach of the Indian women’s cricket team put his stand forward to the BCCI stating that Mithali was putting herself ahead of the team, and personal milestones were her priority.

Speaking to ANI, Ramesh Powar in his statement to BCCI said that Mithali had minimum inputs during the team meetings. Powar said, “Mithali Raj, a senior player in the team, has minimum inputs in team meetings. She couldn't understand & adapt to team plan, ignored her role & batted for own milestones.”

The head coach of the Indian women’s team also said that he tried his level best to address the situation and help Mithali Raj in every (coaching) session, but she was not able to score quickly even in practise games. Powar said, “Worked really hard as a coach to address her (Mithali Raj) power hitting batting skills & running b/w wickets in almost every session. In practice games, she was struggling to score quickly.”

Commenting about what went into the Indian camp before India took on Pakistan in their group match at Women’s World T20, Powar said, “Before Pakistan match, video analyst Pushkar Sawant came to my room with news that Mithali is upset about not allowing her to open in Pakistan match. She packed her bags to leave with announcement of retiring in morning. I was shell shocked to understand why?” Mithali Raj T20 World Cup Selection Row: Sanjay Manjrekar Comes in Support of the Cricketer.

Powar added, “It gave me an impression that for Mithali Raj, she comes first & then Team India. To save positive team environment & due to her threatening (retirement), we opened with her. After the game, she was making her own group with selected players sitting away from the team.”

Well, Mithali Raj is no Bindiya Naik, Ramesh Powar is no Kabir Khan, and Harmanpreet Kaur is no Vidya Sharma. However, the situation at hand is nothing less than how a Bollywood film, Chak De India, portrayed the power struggle in the Indian women’s hockey team.

A lot has been said and heard about the fallout amongst the trio and the BCCI. As they say, there are always three sides to a story – we will have to wait till the third part, i.e. truth, to come out. Until then, stay tuned with LatestLY for all the latest updates in the world of Sports!